Darkened lights along the I-45 North Freeway through Spring won't be fully repaired until the spring of 2027, TxDOT confirmed Sept. 3.

The I-45 corridor from Montgomery County to downtown Houston is the last major stretch on the Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT) repair schedule, KHOU 11 Investigates reported Thursday, Sept. 3. Two other corridors are set to finish sooner: the I-10 Katy Freeway from SH-6 to I-45 by November and the 610 Loop from I-10 West to I-10 East by December.

The problem on I-45 is getting worse.

KHOU counted 50 high-mast lights out between Beltway 8 and the 610 North Loop in April. A more recent count found 61 lights dark along the same stretch. That is an increase of 11 outages on a corridor Spring commuters use every day.

TxDOT Houston District Engineer Glenn Allbritton acknowledged the stretch is dark to drive. He blamed the delays on copper wire theft. Thieves have repeatedly stripped newly installed wiring, sometimes returning within a day of crews finishing repairs.

"(TxDOT crews) are trying to rewire stuff and literally the very next day the wire is stolen … And we try to go back and do it again, and then a day, few days later, the wire gets stolen again," Allbritton told KHOU.

TxDOT shared photos and emails documenting damage from the thefts, including locations hit more than once. The department said it is working with the Houston Police Department's copper wire theft task force to address the problem.

Under the current division of work, TxDOT handles high-mast light installations north of I-10, while Houston Public Works covers repairs south of I-10. Houston Public Works Director Randy Macchi said in an email that his department's earlier commitments applied only to the city's share of the work and were never meant to bind TxDOT to the same deadline.

No specific month within the spring of 2027 has been announced for the I-45 North Freeway completion. TxDOT has not disclosed how many copper wire theft incidents have occurred along the corridor or the dollar value of the losses.